Page status: Draft
Created:Aug 2026
Reviewed:-
To do:Mostly everything.

Mixing Notes

Notes on mixing process to (hopefully) address the following problems: the wall of sound; a balanced mix ... without just making things quiet. Plan B There are more detailed ways of addressing the same things but I've found they tend to require more manual intervention* - whereas the techniques below can be applied at a higher level to get a balanced mix through a lazier, static setup. * The manual intervention techniques are all worthy things: fader automation, EQ automation, dynamic EQ. For me, they're quite time consuming to apply.

Overview

Assume things are Gain Staged, so that all audio and instruments have a consistent level, say around -15dB, adjusted for by setting the Channel's Gain Level. Further attention to errant tracks may be required, e.g. if a specific phrase (or note!) is too quiet/loud. The fixes for these aren't prescribed (automation, splitting audio, compression, de-essing).

Then, given a general mixing process that starts with everything turned down, with the introduction of one instrument or group at a time subsequently, there are three processes described here that work with that mechanism.

First, we look to set just the kick drum, that the other core components (snare, bass, vocals) can be judged against. ("Foundation First"). There are lots of different ways of setting up just the kick that all sound nice ... this one measures it against meters, so that it has a consistent base, regardless of listening volume, tired ears, type of kick, etc.

We'll end up at this point with a rough-yet-balanced static mix. It doesn't need to be precise as things will get nudged around in the next stage.

Once the core instruments are in place, we consider their placement in a 3D space, using the "Mixing Matrix" to control depth, panning for width, EQ for height.

Depth

For the Mixing Matrix, there are 2 main steps:

Each space is a Group (Bus) in Cubase-speak and is prepared with Reverb, EQ, and Compression as required to make things sound near or far away.

Lead vocals, bass, kick & snare are (usually) Front, most others are Middle, some are maybe sensed more than heard and go at the back. This helps give the depth in a mix.

This is largely mono at this point.

Height

Treatment of EQ (for "height") isn't discussed at this point but applying low-pass & high-pass filters is probably a worthy step to stop instruments trampling on each other.

Width

Treatment of Panning (for "width") isn't discussed either. It is assumed that the Front instruments stay narrow and central. The Middle and Back instruments are statically or dynamically spread to achieve space and interest.

Once a balanced static mix is in place, there may be considerations for adding detail, glueing things together and enhancing the presence of the core instruments. The last of these will be discussed using "Parallel Busses".